Packaged potato chips as generally available in grocery stores and the like are mass produced through the utilization of substantially large machinery. An attempt has been made to provide a potato chip manufacturing machine on a smaller scale to provide freshly made potato chips to the consumer in fast food environments.
The device of this invention is an improvement over such a small scale machine. This device of the prior art comprised a frame which supported an elongated oil cooking kettle which was heated by a gas burner. The oil was circulated longitudinally through the kettle by a pump device. Flow retarding paddles were horizontally mounted transverse of the direction of flow of oil in the kettle to retard the flow of potato slices longitudinally in the kettle.
A powered conveyor device was located at one end of the kettle to remove the cooked potato slices from the oil.
A potato slicing means was mounted on the frame partially above the end of the kettle opposite to the conveyor.
The above prior art device had several shortcomings. First of all, it had no potato washing station on the machine which added to the inconvenience of the use thereof. The retarder paddles and the conveyor were driven at constant speeds which added inconvenience to the operator as the volume of potato slices through the unit was varied.
The unit was heated by gas heat and the transfer of heat uniformly to the kettle from the gas burners was inefficient.
The potato slicing device was not completely mounted over the kettle, which caused some potato slices to accumulate on the slicing mechanism without dropping into the cooking oil.
The retarding paddles of this prior art device did not function well to release the potato slices in the cooking oil and as a result, the potato slices often adhered to the paddles.
In addition, this prior art device caused the operator to be substantially exposed to the heat of the gas burners, which made continuous operation of the machine very uncomfortable to the operator.